International Cyber Jurisdiction

Concepts of sovereignty, freedom, privacy and intellectual property become amorphous when discussing territories that only exists as far as the Internet connects. International cyber jurisdiction is supported by a complicated web of international law and treaties. Jurisdiction hopping, a technique that is becoming popular for controversial content, is one we have used for the U.S. 1st Amendment censorship-resistant and non-profit hosting company, Project DOD, by using PRQ's services in Sweden. This technique is used to place assets in a diverse, but accessible, web of countries in which that content may be legal in the hosting country, but may have legal complications in the country in which it is accessed. As ownership and protection of property becomes a concept that is difficult to maintain across boundaries that are not easily distinguishable, can the U.S. "kill-switch" parts of the Internet and under what authority can it be done? Similarly, the geographic challenges to international cyber criminal law – and the feasibility of new sovereign nations – will be analyzed.